Lawmakers move to gut Ariz. campaign money system

Critics of Arizona's public campaign finance system are opening a second front, this time at the Legislature.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-2 along party lines Tuesday for a Republican-sponsored proposed ballot measure to amend the state constitution to bar use of tax dollars for political campaigns.

Passage could dramatically change Arizona's current political processes by effectively gutting the Clean Elections system first used in the 2000 election after being created by voters' approval of a 1998 initiative.

Meanwhile, a federal judge is close to ruling on a legal challenge to the constitutionality of matching funds. Those are supplemental payments that publicly funded candidates get when they're outspent by privately funded rivals or in response to independent expenditures.

Critics of the Clean Elections system said during the Senate committee's hearing that it's wrong to use public money to fund the system.

"Government is still subsidizing politicians, giving them welfare for ideas that they can't sell on the open market place," said Sen. Chuck Gray, R-Mesa.

Others supporting the proposed referendum include representatives of several major corporations and business lobbies as well as a civic-affairs coalition that grew out of a government review effort championed by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

System supporters who argued against the proposed ballot measure during Tuesday's hearing said it allows more people to run for office and reduces the appearance of potential corruption through acceptance of private contributions.

"Prior to Clean Elections, you went to Paradise Valley and the Tucson foothills," said Linda Brown, executive director of the Arizona Advocacy network, referring to affluent areas where residents were and still are courted for campaign contributions.